Read our own Kaila Philo’s essay on Toni Morrison’s new book The Origin of Others and then pair it with Nell Irvin Painter’s reflection on ‘Toni Morrison’s Radical Vision of Otherness.’ “Morrison’s history of Othering represents an intervention in history on several fronts. Although the theme of desegregating the literary canon reappears in The Origin of Others, times have changed since Playing in the Dark. Surely thanks to the more multicultural, multiracial canon that Morrison helped foster, no respectable version of American literature today omits writers of color.”
Toni Morrison Changed the Literary Canon
Artists and Writers Protest at TIFF
1,500 writers and artists signed a protest letter, “No Celebration of Occupation,” against the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to spotlight the city of Tel Aviv. (from Democracy Now)
All Your Favorite Books
This week in book-related infographics that are also, as an added bonus, interactive: “A Google Map of All Your Favorite Books,” via Electric Literature.
On Better Halves (or Twentieths)
Wondering what it’s like to have twenty different personalities? Kim Noble can tell you — she’s published a memoir on the topic.
I’m Not Sexist
“Their deliberately childless life, their cat, Converse (named not for the shoe but for the political scientist), their free-range beef and nights and weekends of reading and grading and high-quality television series—it was fine and a little horrible. She gets it.” It shouldn’t take much convincing to get you to go and read some new fiction by Curtis Sittenfeld, Gender Studies, over at The New Yorker.